I like a high quality walnut, regardless of the species. I also, for many years appreciated darker woods for most blued guns. But just about six months ago I decided to change directions and had a stock made from Myrtlewood. Very, very nice results...

It's a light colored wood but has all the features of a good hardwood for making stocks. Add this to a stainless gun and it's something special. However it also looks good with blue or Teflon surfaced receivers and barrels. If you want something a bit different, but with all the qualities of a nice hardwood, take a look at Myrtlewood. Check Google for dealers on the Internet. BTW, it's an American wood that grows in our Pacific Northwest. Good stuff.....

i have a friend who has Claro on his Ljutic. Replaced the Claro with English. When we took the Claro stock off, we found it to be considerably lighter than the English. You might want to keep this in mind. Hope this helps, Roy

Ray's is right about Claro. It tends to be very porous and open grained. You can find some very stunning pieces and a good price, but would be one of my last choices for a gun stock. That's not to say there aren't solid Claro blanks out there, just not many. You can find some nice black walnut for far less than English or Turkish I've got a few pieces of black walnut if you are interested. Larry

Gordon Smith from Old Tree Gun Blanks used to post regularly here, and offered special deals to TS.com members. I bought a couple of nice blanks from him for a very good price, and am anxiously awaiting delivery on my Ruger #1 that I had restocked from one of the blanks. When it arrives, I will post pictures.

I've got high grade English wood on my Ljutic, which replaced a nice piece of fiddleback Claro. I didn't notice a huge difference in weight. I'd stock a trap gun in Hawaiian Koa if I could get a piece as nice as what's on one of my rifles...but the really good stuff is getting very hard to get.

I can't recommend Mike Mann highly enough. I gave him some basic parameters along with a price I wanted to hit. He sent me a fantastic blank of Bastogne Walnut. It was turned into this by Doug Carpenter:

I've since bought another blank from Mike only this time in Myrtle wood. Doug is working on it right now, but here is the blank:

Seriously, just call Mike. Tell him what you want and he will hook you up.